Some of Ottawa’s youngest residents got the chance to roll up their sleeves for the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday as the next phase of the mass vaccination campaign began in the nation’s capital.
Hundreds of kids aged five to 11 got their first COVID-19 shots at the Nepean Sportsplex and two other clinics across Ottawa on Friday, the first day appointments were available after the cohort became eligible for vaccination earlier this month.
A total of seven mass vaccination clinics for kids will be running across the city starting Saturday and select pharmacies listed on the Ottawa Public Health website are also able to administer the vaccines to those aged five to 11.
More than 27,000 appointments were booked for kids in the first 24 hours of eligibility on Tuesday, according to Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health. This represents more than a third of the 77,000 children in the five-to-11 age range in Ottawa.
Etches said there were a total of 60,000 appointments released between Friday and Dec. 23.
OPH’s COVID-19 vaccination dashboard updated Friday to include the newly eligible demographic and show that 115 kids born between 2010 and 2016 had already received first doses of the vaccine, most likely from sources outside the city.
Some 96 per cent of youth aged 12 to 18 are considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
From Ottawa’s total population, 80 per cent have gotten one shot while 77 per cent have gotten two doses.
Meanwhile, OPH reported 47 new COVID-19 cases on Friday as the number of active cases in the city rose to 318.
There are now 12 people in hospital locally with COVID-19 and no patients in the intensive care unit.
No new COVID-19 outbreaks were declared on Friday, but Carson Grove Elementary School in Gloucester has been closed due to an ongoing outbreak at the school.
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